Many explosive compounds are able to quench electrochemiluminescence (ECL) in aqueous solution in proportion to the concentration of explosive, indicating that this is a promising avenue of study for the analytical quantitation of such substances. In order to quantify mixtures of two or more explosives, it is first necessary to understand the quenching behavior of multiple quenchers with multiple luminescors. This presentation will report on results of a survey of the ECL quenching ability of five explosives (TNT, tetryl, HMX, RDX and PETN) and one taggant molecule (DMDNB) on three luminescors (luminol, calcein blue and Ru(bpy)). Further, the fluorescence quenching of these compounds on rhodamine-B and catechol was studied in preliminary preparation for later ECL studies of those luminescors. It was determined that all of the prospective quenchers except HMX did indeed have an effect on the ECL of the three luminescors. HMX presented very little quenching, whether it was ECL or fluorescence, with any luminescor. While some explosives exhibited linear relationships between quenching (E<sub>0</sub>/E – 1) and concentration, others exhibited quenching but the relationship was not linear, possibly indicating that the form of quenching (static vs. dynamic) has a dependence on explosive concentration.

Quenching of electrochemiluminescence in aqueous solution by nitrate explosives

253rd National Meeting (2017)

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